HEALTHCARE
Prozac taken off market
Prozac, a brand of the antidepressant fluoxetine, commonly used to treat depression, is to be withdrawn from the Taiwanese market starting next month. Zuellig Pharma Ltd (裕利) has informed healthcare facilities that it would no longer provide Prozac 20mg from April 1. The National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration’s drug expenditure target system cuts drug prices every year, while the costs of ingredients and shipping have increased, stripping Zuellig of profits, the firm said. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co has informed Zuellig that it would no longer provide Prozac for the local market, but would still fulfill orders made before March 29, Zuellig said. The NHI price for Prozac has been cut from NT$2.08 to NT$1.96 per tablet. Prozac is a first-line medication widely used to treat depression, and has fewer side effects than comparable medicines, but there are generic drugs in Taiwan that can replace it, Taiwan Pharmacist Association spokesperson Chang Wen-ching (張文靜) said. People who are taking Prozac should consult a doctor on how to change their medication, she said.
LABOR
Fewer on unpaid leave
The number of workers on unpaid leave in the first half of the month fell from the previous two weeks, Ministry of Labor data showed. As of Friday last week, the number of workers who had agreed to go on furlough was 289, down from 492 in the past two weeks of last month, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the number of employers implementing unpaid leave also fell in the first two weeks, dropping from 23 in the previous two weeks to 18, the data showed. From March 1 to 15, seven employers terminated their unpaid leave programs, while two adopted new ones, the ministry said. Most of the companies that had employees on unpaid leave were small enterprises with a workforce of fewer than 50, with three exceptions, it said.
FISHERIES
Stabbing suspect arrested
A Filipino man who was arrested on suspicion of killing two other crew members on a Taiwan-registered fishing boat in the Indian Ocean last month was yesterday brought to Taiwan for questioning, the Coast Guard Administration said. The man is suspected of killing two crew members and injuring two others during an argument on board the Wen Peng on Feb. 20, while other crew members jumped overboard during and after the knife attack. At the time, the Pingtung-registered fishing boat was sailing about 1,540 nautical miles (2,852km) from the Mauritius capital of Port Louis with a crew of 24 — three Taiwanese, 10 Filipinos and 11 Indonesians. Six crew members remain missing.
DIPLOMACY
Eswatini minister visits
Swazi Minister of Health Lizzy Nkosi on Sunday arrived in Taipei for a five-day visit aimed at enhancing bilateral exchanges in the areas of health and medical care, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Nkosi, who was appointed in November last year, is accompanied by a delegation that includes Swazi Deputy Director of Clinical Services Velephi Okello, the ministry said. The delegation was to meet with Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), and Nkosi and Taiwanese officials were to discuss ways to enhance two-way exchanges. The delegation is also to visit the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund and a number of hospitals in Taipei, it added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching